2010 HW20 is an asteroid in the Apollo orbit class. Its orbit takes it from 0.96 AU to 1.06 AU from the Sun; one orbit takes 371.4 days. Orbit from the JPL solution of 15 April 2021.
Where is it now
- Distance from Sun
- 1.058 AU
- True anomaly
- 201.63°
- Distance from Earth
- 1.571 AU
- As of
- 3 November 2026
Two-body Kepler propagation — accurate to ~0.1% for major planets over decades, less so for highly-perturbed bodies. Use JPL Horizons for high precision.
In the sky
- Right ascension
- 17h 27m 25s
- Declination
- -28° 41′ 09″
- Constellation
- Ophiuchus
- Distance from Earth
- 1.57 AU
- Elongation from the Sun
- 41.51° — near the Sun — look low at dusk or dawn
Favours the southern hemisphere; low or below the horizon from far north.
From your location
See how high it is right now, whether it is up after civil twilight, and when it rises and sets where you are.
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Two-body approximation, good to about a degree for the planets — enough to find the constellation and know whether it is up.
Orbital elements
- Semi-major axis
- 1.011 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.05
- Inclination
- 8.18°
- Orbital period
- 371.4 days
- Perihelion
- 0.961 AU
- Aphelion
- 1.062 AU
- Longitude of ascending node
- 39.19°
- Argument of periapsis
- 60.44°
- Epoch · J2000
- 2461200.5
- Orbit class · APO
- Apollo
- Earth MOID · 3.3 LD
- 0.0085 AU
- Tisserand (Jupiter)
- 6.018
Orbit quality
Orbit poorly determined (uncertainty code 6).
- Observations used
- 29
- Data arc
- 14 days
- First observed
- 25 April 2010
- Last observed
- 9 May 2010
- Residual RMS
- 0.42 ″
- Solution · Otto Matic
- 15 April 2021
Visual & observation
- Absolute magnitude (H)
- 26.1
Discovery & classification
Close approaches 33 on record
Top-down view of the ecliptic, Earth at the centre, for the 2066-10-02 18:58 UTC close approach of 2010 HW20. Catalogue miss distance 156.6 LD · 6.02 × 10⁷ km. The curve is the geocentric path from 2066-09-29 to 2066-10-05, with a mark at UTC midnights and an arrow for the direction of motion. The circle is the Moon’s mean orbit; the Moon is plotted at closest approach. A ray shows the Sun’s direction. The labelled distance is the full separation. The drawn radius is the part that lies in the ecliptic plane. The path is a geocentric ecliptic ephemeris from JPL Horizons. The inset is a heliocentric view and is approximate.
| When (UTC) | Body | Distance | Lunar distances | Relative speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2066-10-02 18:58:00 | Earth | 0.4024 AU | 156.6 LD | 13.5 km/s |
| 2067-10-10 06:18:00 | Earth | 0.3014 AU | 117.3 LD | 10.7 km/s |
| 2068-10-16 02:48:00 | Earth | 0.2019 AU | 78.6 LD | 8.1 km/s |
| 2069-10-23 07:13:00 | Earth | 0.1066 AU | 41.5 LD | 5.9 km/s |
| 2070-10-30 04:55:00 | Earth | 0.0233 AU | 9.1 LD | 4.6 km/s |
| 2071-05-08 06:21:00 | Earth | 0.1064 AU | 41.4 LD | 4.7 km/s |
| 2071-11-03 11:34:00 | Earth | 0.0277 AU | 10.8 LD | 4.4 km/s |
| 2072-05-01 17:54:00 | Earth | 0.055 AU | 21.4 LD | 4.3 km/s |
| 2072-11-10 00:12:00 | Earth | 0.0858 AU | 33.4 LD | 4.7 km/s |
| 2073-04-26 06:35:00 | Earth | 0.0246 AU | 9.6 LD | 4.4 km/s |
Next ten from today. 1 lunar distance = 384,400 km. Source: JPL close-approach data.
Sources
- visual properties: JPL SBDB (lookup)
- orbital elements: JPL SBDB